Frustrated Vallejo community questions city on housing issues

The city gave the public up to three hours to vent Wednesday night, and residents used every minute of it.

The city's community meeting revolved around issues such as future affordable housing numbers, getting rid of squatters and grant funding for low-income residents. Some 50 community members, four council members and a handful of city staff attended.

The meeting was taped and is scheduled to be available on the city's website at www.ci.vallejo.ca.us. It was designed as a casual conversation, in which council members remained mostly mum.

The evening's first topic of discussion was on a Bay Area-wide assessment of how many new housing units, many of them low-income, each community is expected to allow in coming years. This year, for the first time, Vallejo joined other Solano County cities in negotiating that number and saw its total drop from about 3,100 to 1,300 units, Housing and Community Development Manager Melinda Nestlerode said.

Speakers questioned Nestlerode on how well she advocated for the city, saying Vallejo needs to recover from tough economic times, and focus on providing services for current residents before bringing in more.

The conversation later turned to city plans to reduce squatters living in vacant homes citywide.

City Attorney Claudia Quintana spoke about the city's new Neighborhood Law Program, designed to complement next week's hiring of two new code enforcement officers. She said the program will allow the city to address squatter problems on a case-by-case basis.

Ann Smith, a volunteer with neighborhood watch newsletter Vallejo Lamplighter, said she and others have been personally attacking Vallejo's squatter and negligent homeowner/bank problem for nearly two years. She reeled off a list of questions, many asking why the city thinks the law program will be more effective than instituting a property owner registration program.

Quintana acknowledged that Vallejo already has the laws on the books needed to go after property owners, but has lacked the the manpower until now to do so.

Contact staff writer Jessica A. York at (707) 553-6834 or jyork@timesheraldonline.com. Follow her on Twitter @JYVallejo.